Villain in Another World
by Goldenbrook15
Summary: In another life, in another world, Iida Tenya could have been a villain. In another reality, he was. Just . . . not the kind of Villain everyone was expecting.
1. The Villain

**Disclaimer: I do not own Log Horizon or My Hero Academia. Also, please do not copy this or any of my other stories to another site. I know that some fanfiction authors have been getting in trouble because there are sites out there that are stealing popular stories and putting them up on **_**paid**_ **sites, which is illegal and can get you in a lot of trouble. If you see any of my stories on any site other than Fanfiction, I did not give permission for them to be there. The only place that I put my stories is . If you see it anywhere else, please let me know. Do. Not. Copy. **

**I am sorry about putting out yet **_**another **_**story. I thought that this would just be a oneshot, but then I started writing it . . . and writing . . . and writing . . . **

**Needless to say, I am just going to post what I have and get it over with. It will probably be about three chapters long in total. Not too plot heavy, but you probably won't understand it if you haven't seen Log Horizon. I was just rewatching a few of the episodes recently and realized just how similar Iida Tenya from My Hero Academia and Shiroe from Log Horizon look. They could be twins! No, seriously.**

**And as soon as I had that thought, this idea was born . . . and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. Please let me know what you think!**

_Summary: In another life, in another world, Iida Tenya could have been a villain. In another reality, he was. Just . . . not the kind of Villain everyone was expecting. _

**Villain in Another World **

**Chapter 1**

_**The Villain**_

Tenya Iida was among the top members of his class, the famous class 1-A. He'd survived through villain attacks twice, was almost murdered by a killer anti-hero, and above all he was the class president. This did not make him the best student in class, though, and he knew that. He was far outstripped by the likes of Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo, but he honestly didn't really mind. They were amazing heroes in the making, and he would gladly fight alongside them against any villain.

Besides, the top students were also top targets for villains every time they were attacked. Everyone knew who Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo were, and as such they were also kidnapping risks. More than one villain had tried to snap them off of the streets before, to their later regret. Iida was glad to be able to fade into their shadows, in light of that fact. Sure, having the spotlight pulled away from him and his efforts stung at times, but at least he didn't have to constantly watch over his shoulder in case an opportunistic villain attempted to catch him off guard.

Or . . . he didn't usually have to. Today might have been the only exception.

There was something wet running down the side of his face, Iida noted as he slowly came back to awareness. His head was bent downward awkwardly, and a sharp pain shot through his neck as he tried to lift it. He was kneeling on something hard and cold, probably cement, and his arms were wrenched behind his back painfully. He attempted to wriggle them free, but hissed as what felt like rope dug into his arms. His legs were similarly secured, he noted, with the exposed engine pipes wrapped up to keep him from using his quirk.

Iida blinked, black spots dancing in front of his eyes as he tried to get them to focus. The ground in front of him was blurry, but there was an odd line running through it. It took him a moment to realize that the crack was actually what remained of the left lense of his glasses. The other lense was completely gone.

_What . . . happened?_

It was hard to recall because his mind was still foggy, but Iida vaguely remembered heading out to go shopping for a few things. UA had a buddy system going to help make sure that their students always had backup if something like this happened to them, but Iida couldn't remember who went with him, only that they had split up for a minute to look at something on opposite sides of the small store they were in. It shouldn't have been enough time for someone to get the drop on him. It _shouldn't have_ but . . .

_(His vision suddenly blurred as his head jerked to the side with a crack. For a second he stood stunned, and then the world turned black as screams suddenly blurred out around him . . .)_

He must have been hit in the head by something really hard, probably from behind. He had never even seen his assailant coming.

Iida tried to shift again, and had to bite back a groan as some of his limbs started burning at the increased blood circulation.

"Oh!"

Iida jerked, his head snapping upwards at the sudden noise, and he focused on the blurry figure on the other side of the room he was trapped in. His neck protested the movement, but he ignored it as he tried to get his foggy brian to figure out what was going on.

"I thought that you would be out longer! I did give you a good smack to the head, after all, but no matter! You are right on time to see my newest masterpiece!"

Even with his blurry vision, Iida could still tell that the other was wearing some kind of . . . bag over his face. It was big and round, with red squiggles that he couldn't quite make out at this distance. The villain also seemed a little short . . . oh, wait, he had been crouching.

Clenching his teeth and tasting copper, Iida snarled, "I don't know what want from me, Villain, but it won't work! I am a student of UA, and we are all closely tracked. The Heroes will come down on your head before you can carry out your dastardly scheme!"

As if to completely disregard everything he had just said, the villain laughed happily and clapped his hands together, "Why, Iida - I _can _call you Iida right? - I already have what I want from you!"

And suddenly, the villain was right in front of him. Iida flinched back slightly. His mind was still unfocused and foggy, probably from a concussion, but he noted that the other was wrapped in a long black trench coat with what looked like chalk streaks smudged into the dark cloth.

"Iida Tenya, member of the _infamous _class 1-A of UA high school. Quirk: Engine. Younger brother of _Ingenium. _Last confirmed victim of _Stain," _the villains voice was hard now, and cold.

Iida felt a tremor run down his spin as the villain whispered the last part into his ear before pulling back. Even if Iida wanted to say something back, the very mention of Stain had formed a clog in the back of his throat. He barely managed to rasp out a gasp of air.

"So why, my dear _hero-in-training_, are you _still alive?"_ the sneer was clear in his voice, even if it wasn't visible behind the bag-mask. "Master Stain clearly chose to redeem you of your awful torment, to free you from the life of a hero, but here you are before me, _alive." _

The villain scoffed and strutted away. "Honestly," he commented, "It makes me _sick_, but!" he sighed, "There really wasn't anything that I could do. You see, I am not a killer, and I could care less about what that pesky League of Villains wants. No. I had to come up with another way to finish Master Stains work, starting with his last target! Oh, it would be so wonderful! You see," the villain spun around to face Iida again and flung his arms out on either side of him, "I would just have to use my quirk to show you the _truth!"_

Iida twitched, "What does that monster have to do with you?"

No one would ever be able to convince him otherwise, Stain was a monster. He'd held them captive by his very presence, and his words were like poison, infecting the minds of all who heard. After his arrest, all sorts had begun to crawl out of the woodwork and commit crimes in his name. Iida had a sinking feeling that this one was after _revenge_.

"Master Stain isn't a monster!" the villain snapped and shuddered, fists clenching and unclenching before he sighed, "No, he was an angel trapped in a mortal body, trying to reveal the truth to the world," the villain lifted his head, "My quirk has revealed it all to me. It is just like Master Stain said. This world is full of _fake heroes,_" he chuckled and threw back his head, "My quirk has shown me . . ."

Iida suddenly felt very, very small next to the masked villain, Stains own words echoing in his mind from _that _night.

"_Everyone that is a hero, could have also been a villain." _

0~o~0

Midoriya scowled as he looked over the many different maps laid out around them, desperately searching for _something_. What, he didn't quite know yet. But it _had _to be there, something that they were overlooking, something that they hadn't seen.

Aizawa-Sensei walked through the doorway, looking just as tired as Izuku felt. "Any luck?"

Izuku shook his head and tugged at his bushy green hair in frustration. "I just don't _get it._ We were _right there_ when it happened. How did he disappear? Some kind of teleportation quirk? No, we found evidence that he was knocked out first, a teleporter wouldn't have to do that. The cameras were at a bad angle, so we didn't really get a good look at the culprit. What am I _missing."_

Aizawa sighed, his face unusually grave, "Calm down, problem-child. We will find him. The other pro heroes are working on it as well. They couldn't have gotten far. The others are searching through the local abandoned lots as we speak-" he was cut off as Izuku's head snapped up suddenly.

"Of course!" Izuku gasped, "How could I be so _stupid!" _He spun to Aizawa with wide eyes, "There is no way this was a planned kidnapping. No one knew that we were going to be there at that time! This was a kidnapping of _opportunity _which means," his grin was vishous and his eyes were lit up with dark understanding, "_The villain is a local. _We aren't looking for somewhere abandoned, _we're looking for their home." _

0~o~0

The lights flickered as the villain flipped on some kind of switch, and the center of the floor, which had been shadowed before, was suddenly revealed. Iida gaped at what looked like some kind of intricate circle etched in chalk on the ground.

"My quirk," the villain grinned, "is called _Doppelganger."_

0~o~0

"All Heroes, we have located the possible location of Iida Tenya. I am sending the location now."

0~o~0

"Every decision in your life, every twist, every turn . . ."

0~o~0

"We have the building surrounded. The heroes are getting into position. Target should be on the fourth floor. We are just waiting on the arrival of Eraserhead. Does anyone have confirmation on a quirk, yet?"

"Sir," one of the junior slid into the car handed a file over to her superior, "His name is Itsu Yamagami. Quirk: Doppelganger."

The police chief scowled and flipped the file open. They were still in the disguised police vehicle. No point in alerting the villain to their knowledge of his base yet.

"Supposedly, he is able to peer into alternate possibilities . . ."

0~o~0

"They have _consequences."_

Iida was sure that the villain was grinning under that mask of his, but he was more focused on the floor where the villain had suddenly dropped what looked like a chunk of black hair in the center of the chalk circle. His feeling of dread increased as he realized that it was _his_ hair sitting in the center of that circle.

"In one life, you might have died young."

A candle set at the edge of the circle farthest away from him burst into blue flames, but the room suddenly seemed _darker_, almost, as Iida focused on the wavering speck of blue.

"In another, you could be an orphan that grew up in a street gang."

A second blue candle flame flickered into existence.

"What if, in one life, you had been born quirkless?"

There were twelve candles total, all set equal distance from each other around the circle. Iida didn't know how he didn't notice them before. Three of them were lit, now, with nine unlit. The Chalk itself had taken on an eerie glow, reflecting the candlelight.

"How about if you never went to UA?"

"What if your brother had _died_ instead of simply becoming paralized?"

"Have you ever thought about turning traitor?"

Iida's next breath came out in a gust of shimmering crystals that fogged up the air in front of him. He was frozen, staring at the candles as the villain walked around the circle, candles lighting up in his wake. The room almost seemed to be growing _colder._

_Dead, orphan, quirkless, civilian . . . _

"And what if in one world," the villain came to a stop at the last candle, and for the first time Iida realized that the red markings on the others mask made some kind of twisted, mocking _smile, _"You were _the Villain." _

The last candle sputtered, twisted, and _glowed._

0~o~0

"Supposedly, he is able to peer into alternate possibilities . . . and then _summon _someone from one of those realities, so long as he has a DNA sample from their counterpart in this reality."

0~o~0

"This is Eraserhead. Do we have a visual on the target yet?"

His radio crackled as he looked down at the plain looking apartment building. Honestly, it looked like any other building on the block. They would never have thought to check here at first.

It had already been three hours since Iida was taken. They were _running out of time._

"Not yet, Eraserhead. The apartment is dark. We think that there might be some kind of covering on the windows, though. We are just waiting on confirmation on the quirk before we go in."

Aizawa growled softly, and he heard one of the younger heroes on the other end of the radio squeak slightly. Probably one of his former students.

"We don't _have time_ to wait for a quirk analysis," Aizawa scowled and stood, "I am going it. Cover me."

"Eraserhead, wait, we need to go together-!"

One of his students had been in that building for three hours with a villain who had unknown motivations. Aizawa was not waiting any longer. It had already been long enough.

Activating his quirk and unravelling the white scarf around his neck, Aizawa stepped up on the ledge of the building and aimed to anchor his weapon to the other building in preparation to jump through the window. Just as he was about to send it over, however, he noticed something _odd._

The window on the fourth floor that was his target had a slightly blue _glow_ flickering out from under what looked like thick black curtains. No one on the ground could see it because of the angle, but Aizawa suddenly felt like there was ice sitting in his stomach.

Without a second thought, he lept.

0~o~0

"In this life, you are a _fake hero, _Iida Tenya, and just like everyone else, you have your own _evil doppelganger." _

The entire room was suddenly lit up with blue light, and a sudden wind whipped up around them. Iida had to force himself to duck and close his eyes as everything in the room that wasn't nailed down was suddenly battered with the sudden gusts. He didn't even realize that the window behind him had been shattered until he heard a choked cry from the villain that had been taunting him.

"Iida!" a very familiar voice called out commandingly, "Can you stand?"

Eraserhead was standing before him in his hero costume, dark hair levitating around him as he held the struggling villain deep within the constraints of his capture weapon. His quirk was activated, which meant that the villains should have stopped except-

The lights in the building suddenly flickered and died, plunging the room into complete darkness except for the menacing blue glow emanating from the intricate chalk circle, and in the center of it . . .

The villain cackled, "You're too late, Eraserhead. It's already been _activated-"_

"Aizawa-sensei, watch out!" Iida yelled desperately, before his vision was overwhelmed with _blue_.

He didn't hear his teachers cry of shock, too focused on keeping himself as low to the floor as possible as wave after wave of blue and white light washed over him, obscuring his vision. He didn't know how long it lasted but, with a final brush of warm wind, the light was swept away like mist. The last remaining clouds of it hovered ominously over where the circle had been previously, swirling in a counter-clockwise manner around a slightly obscured figure crouched in the very center of it.

Iida didn't even register the villain's insain cackling, his gaze focused on the dark-haired figure in front of him as it slowly stood from its crouch.

The first thing that he noticed was the _white_. A white cloak completely covered the others form with a high collar. From the angle that he was at, Iida could only see the figures back and the top of his head. One hand stretched out to his right, gripping a tall, odd looking staff. He stared, transfixed, as the figure slowly turned to face him.

It was like time had stopped.

There was no doubt about it. It was Iida's own face staring back at him.

Eraserhead pulled his arm down from where it was covering his face, eyes narrowed. He still had the villain in his grip, but his attention was now focused on the stranger that had appeared in their midst.

The figure shifted, examining the room around them with a dead, _calculating _expression, before slowly lifting his hand and _clicking_ his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. It was a familiar gesture, one that Iida knew was a habit of his, every time he was thinking. The lenses flashed, but Iida had never seen a pair of glasses look so _menacing_ before.

As the last of the mist cleared, Iida couldn't help but recall the villain's words and a shudder ran down his spine.

"_And what if in one world . . . you were _The Villain."

The villain in Eraserheads grasp managed to wiggle free when the bindings loosened slightly in the man's shock. Dancing away from the Pro-hero, the villain turned toward the doppelganger and bowed grandly. "I welcome you to our world," at some point, his mask must have been ripped off, because Iida realized that he could now clearly see the glint of white teeth, "_Villain in Glasses." _

"Well," the doppelganger spoke in a _calm_ voice, glasses glinting as he tilted his head, "This is certainly unexpected."

**0~o~0**

**Please let me know what you think. Should I continue this, or just leave it off here? What do you think is going to happen next? Would you like to see things from Shiroe's perspective? **

**Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts on this!**

**(Posted: 10/18/2019)**


	2. A Diverging Path

**Disclaimer: I do not own Log Horizon or My Hero Academia. Also, please do not copy this or any of my other stories to another site.**

**Have fun reading!**

**Chapter 2**

_**A Diverging Path**_

When Kei Shirogane woke up in Theldesia for the first time as _Shiroe, _there had been a strange sort of detachment involved. He had been . . . _calm. _Collected. Not _himself._

Because he was too tall, and he gripped the magic staff as if he had grown up with one in his hand, and his ears _twitched _and it was _normal - _

If Kei Shirogane had been _just _Kei Shirogane then he would have probably curled up in a ball and sobbed from the sheer pressure of _other_ echoing back at him from his own mind. But he wasn't just Kei, he was also Shiroe, level ninety half-Alv Enchanter, and at that moment his instincts had told him to _be quiet, listen, observe. _Then _act. _

And in that moment, he had listened.

While the other Adventurers collapse under their own grief, Shiroe gathered allies, formed alliances, and _moved forward._

Maybe if he'd had a moment to himself, a moment to _really_ consider what had happened and not just on the _what happens next - _maybe things would have been different. Maybe Kei Shirogane, socially awkward, _shy _Shirogane, would have bent under the expectations that fell on his shoulders. But then, at that moment, he _couldn't _be Shirogane. He had to be Shiroe.

And Shiroe wouldn't falter. He _couldn't. _

At that moment, at that time, he made a decision, and Kei Shirogane was buried somewhere deep inside of him, tucked away out of sight with all of his insecurities and faults. In his place, Shiroe became a pillar of strength, a legend both before and after the Apocalypse.

Because in that moment, the Adventurers hadn't needed some hero to follow. They already had plenty of those scattered among them: Strong, capable warriors that fought and lead their troops through battle, but not necessarily _off _of it.

No, they hadn't needed a strong hero.

They'd needed someone smart. Someone who could outthink their opponent rather than just throwing more bodies at it. They'd needed a _villain_.

And even if they never asked for it. They got him. _The Villain in Glasses. _

He'd taken this new world by storm. Underhanded tactics, politics, spies, information networks, he had them all, and he _used them_ like no one else in the game was capable of. He was truly a villain to be feared.

Because by their third year in, the very mention of his _name _had enemies running scared.

"_The Villain in Glasses," _they said, "_Can tear you into little pieces, chew you up, and spit you out _alive_. And he doesn't even have to _be there _to do it." _

Just like he'd done to anyone who opposed him in Akihabara. Just like he'd done to Plant Hwyaden. And no one wanted to mention what happened to the Genius after he figured out their tricks.

Shiroe was, in essence, the _perfect villain._

And so, when the ground around him suddenly burst into a miniature glowing circle that looked suspiciously like disabled transportation circle in the center of Akihabara, he _didn't panic. _

Okay, when the circle flared and swallowed him in a cloud of pale blue light, he _might _have been a little freaked out.

But they had _planned _for this. He wasn't the only one to fall victim to a transportation circle or fairy ring, and he wouldn't be the last. It may take a while, but his guild _would _find him. He just . . . had to figure out where he was first.

For several moments, everything was _white_ around him. And silent. The kind of silence that sends shivers down your spine. Even if it had only been a few seconds, it still felt like _hours_, as if time itself were of no consideration.

For all he knew, it might _not be_.

_Deep breaths. One step at a time. _

Shiroe shifted, and felt his feet slide over solid ground as the white dome around him began to wisp away in long, trailing strings that flew outwards, revealing more of his surroundings.

Shiroe had landed in a slight crouch, his knees bend and his staff held lightly in his hand, ready for action. You never know what you might encounter on the other side of a fairy circle, and Shiroe was not about to be caught unaware.

The first thing he noted . . . was a wall.

A . . . perfectly normal wall. One you might see in any of the small apartments in Akihabara, if a little more chipped and faded then what he was used to.

It was also dark. Shiroe had to blink several times before his enhanced vision kicked in and the details of the room around him sharpened. After several moments he shifted and carefully stood. His ears twitched slightly under his dark hair as he picked up the sound of several other people breathing in the room. There were still some whisps drifting around his feet, but he paid them no mind as he shifted slightly, looking over his shoulder -

And locking eyes with a young man with startlingly familiar features.

Shiroe felt his own face go blank as he gazed at _himself, _tied up and frozen in shock on the ground.

_Well . . . this is a little odd. _

The boy was in a uniform, one that would not be uncommon in his own home world if he were still a highschool student. But Shiroe had spent the last _six years _in Theldesia, and _no one_ wore clothing like that anyone. It was too impractical for fighting.

_This . . . might be a little more complicated than I expected. _

He clicked his glasses back up on his nose as he tore his eyes away to examine the rest of the room. There were two others in the room as well. One man was dressed all in black with a . . . scarf _floating _in the air around him and almost mummifying the second man.

His eyes narrowed.

_The boy is a hostage, clearly a victim in all of this. The men are fighting each other, - _

And he was obviously _not going to acknowledge _the obviously _not normal powers_ being displayed in front of him right now.

_\- and there is some sort of circle drawn around me. This is reminding me oddly of a summoning circle . . . no, it _is _a summoning circle. Did I _honestly _just get summoned into _yet another _world? Please don't tell me my luck is that bad . . . _

The second man somehow managed to wiggle out of the restraints around him, and danced away from the second attempt to catch him again as he spun toward Shiroe. Shiroe himself tightened his grip on his staff and felt his back go ridgid. He did _not _like that smile . . .

The man stopped a few feet in front of Shiroe, and his grin became impossibly wider. Shiroe could _see _the madness festering unchecked behind the other's dark eyes. It reminded him of the guild who purposefully got themselves killed over and over again just so that they could see brief glimpses of the world they had left behind.

_(Soon enough, they'd had no memories left to give, and no reason to really continue. They had lost what they so desperately pursued due to their own foolish actions, and there had been nothing Shiroe could do but stand aside and watch.)_

The man didn't even seem to notice Shiroe's own wariness as he bowed deeply, One arm crossed over his front and the other gesturing out grandly to sweep the room around them.

"I welcome you," the obvious crazy man began, "to _our world."_

Shiroe's eyes narrowed further. _So, this was planned. _

"_Villain in Glasses."_

Ice. In his lungs. Grk. _How in the world(s) did this crazy know his title?_

From the shock on the other's faces, this was certainly a surprise to them, too. So, just the crazy again. Shiroe tilted his head slightly, disguising the slight shift in his body as he carefully tightened his grip on his staff.

"Well," Shiroe spoke calmly, keeping himself from any obvious tells, "This is certainly unexpected."

The crazy's grin became impossibly wider. "It is a pleasure to meet you, My Lord. The rumors are undoubtedly true. Your very presence is enough to shake these false heroes existence. It is truly an honor to greet you-"

Shiroe lashed out with his staff so quickly that even Akatsuki would have had a hard time following its path. Within seconds, the hard wooden curve at the end impacted the man's head, cutting him off with a choked gasp and sending him spiraling into the white cloth that had lunged out to grab the man in that exact moment.

The crazy dropped into his new nest of bandages without a sound, eyes rolling into the back of his head and grin slackening slightly but still there. The second set of bandages that had been aimed directly at Shiroe were easily sidestepped as he carefully jumped back out of the _summoning circle. _Turning, he gave a lazy shrug at the man in black and clicked his glasses up on his nose again.

"Now that _that's _taken care of," Shiroe began, his voice gaining a slight hint of irritation, "Can someone _please _explain what in the world is going on?"

The black haired man with bandages floating around him stared Shiroe down with narrow, squinting eyes. There were scars around the edges, as if at one point his entire face had impacted the ground. Repeatedly. The man's eyes flickered between Shiroe and his identical copy still tied up on the ground, and then he grunted.

"Problem child," The man spoke to the boy still tied up on the ground in a tired, gravely voice, "This is your fault."

0~o~0

_Villain in Glasses._

Honestly, on its own it wasn't a name that inspired fear. Aizawa had faced hundreds of villains with names that echoed their personalities perfectly. Cruel, dangerous, _insane, _he'd faced them all.

He might have even laughed if he'd seen this name on a police report. Who calls themselves the _Villain in Glasses?_

He wasn't laughing now.

The leftover blue glow highlighted the cloaked figure in an ominous light, and sharp cheekbones were thrown into stark shadows as the white cloak flapped lightly in the dispitating wind.

Glasses, hiding the sharp, _calculating _gaze that had swept over him and left him _paralized_ the second it had been resting on him.

The last time he had felt something like this . . . _the last time . . . _

The last time, it had been All for One.

And the way that the other had reacted had been _trained. _He'd landed in the middle of an unknown situation, analyzed his surroundings, deduced what was going on and how they fought, and then picked a side by taking out the weakest link. If it had just been the gaze, or the reaction to the villain, Aizawa might have been able to write it off but -

"_Now that _that's _taken care of," the voice was cold, _emotionless, "_Can someone please explain what in the world is going on?" _

The cloaked figure had dodged his capture scarf without even looking, _planned for it_, even. All within the few seconds that he had existed in this world.

This . . . he wasn't paid enough to deal with this.

At least this _Villain in Glasses_ didn't look like he was going to attack _them_ at the moment, though that might have something to do with the curious glance that he kept shooting Iida out of the corner of his eyes.

After several moments of silence, Aizawa forced himself to relax slightly as he backed down from the silent standoff he and the villain were in. Unlike _someone else_ he was familiar with, he knew when to pick his battles. And right now? His instincts were telling him to _back down._ Without taking his eyes off of the figure before him, he grunted irritably at Iida.

"Problem child," Aizawa could feel the exhaustion in his own voice, "This is your fault."

Aizawa was an underground hero. He _didn't get paid enough to deal with this._

0~o~0

As an important part of the police force, Naomasa Tsukauchi had run into a lot of interesting situations. All Might himself was a headache to deal with. Friend or not, the retired hero somehow managed to land in the middle of the craziest situations Naomasa had faced.

His friendship and connections with the heros had also made him the person every time there was a _situation. _

And, well, the _last time _a UA student had been kidnapped . . . yeah, the police force wasn't taking any chances.

Thankfully, the information he had been provided with when he arrived on the scene indicated that _this _attack wasn't an organized strike from the League of Villains. Still, he hadn't really been sure what he expected from the situation. Eraserhead had crashed through the upper window without warning, sending the force into radio panic as everyone tried to figure out what was going on. There had been shouting over the comms then what sounded like wind.

And then there had been a pop comm went silent.

Naomasa had told the police to hold back for the moment. They had no real idea what they were dealing with, but he was confident that Eraserhead would be able to handle the situation. That man was one of the only heroes that Naomasa had full trust in to take care of any situation that he ran into.

Even so, the detective did a double take as he saw the figure walking out the front door of the apartment building.

"Iida?" he whispered, then shook his head as a shiver ran down his spine when the other locked onto him the moment that he saw the police force in front of the building. Naomasa didn't the speed quirked UA student well, but he did know that this _wasn't Iida._

Moments later Eraserhead appeared in the doorway with the _real_ Iida leaning on his shoulder and the villain they'd identified being dragged behind them. Naomasa hesitated for a moment before stepping forward, keeping a sharp eye on the cloaked figure as he walked toward the underground hero.

"Eraserhead, I see the mission was a success . . ?" he asked with a lightly questioning tone as he tilted his head slightly to their unexpected addition.

Eraserhead scowled, "A success. Sure, let's call it that."

The perfectly bland smile that he got back from the unfamiliar figure put Naomasa on edge, and he shifted half a foot to the side without even realizing it. Softly he cleared his throat to cover his unease as he turned to face the unknown man. Regardless of his looks and - costume? - outfit, Eraserhead didn't seem to be treating him as an enemy, which meant he was probably a civilian that got caught up in all of this.

"I am sorry, but this is a private police matter. I don't know how you got involved, but if you would give your statements to one of my officers we will let you be on your way . . ?"

"Detective," Eraserhead spoke up, and Naomasa glanced over only to blink in surprise as the tired hero straightened from his slight slouch and look him dead in the eyes. "I wouldn't go letting that one go just yet."

"What . . . ?" Naomasa frowned, and then felt ice shoot down his spine as he glanced back at the figure that he had just been talking to. The man's face was perfectly blank, but his head had tilted just enough for the detective to catch the look in his eyes, and his breath hitched in the back of his throat.

Dark eyes watched his every twitch, like a snake watching a mouse, ready to strike at the first show of weakness.

"Hello Detective," the voice was smooth and calming, but Naomasa felt anything calm pinned under the calculating gaze of the other figure, "I was told that you might be able to answer a few of my questions? My name is-"

"_The Villain in Glasses." _

Naomasa almost jumped as Eraserhead appeared next to him, keeping a wary eye on the stranger, but it was his words that made him freeze.

_Villain . . . ?_

"Ah," there was a soft click as their guest pushed his glasses up slightly on his face. Glass flashed bright, memorizing white, and it almost felt like the very air around them dropped ten degrees, "I really need to stop being introduced like that. It might leave the wrong impression."

His smile was _cold cold cold _-

"Let me restart. _Hello Detective, _my name is Shiroe, and I seem to have found myself summoned into your world."

0~o~0

**Aaaaaand I could have gone on, but I am tired, and dizzy, and I just really want to post this. Please let me know what you think and where you think this is going! I am still trying to get into character for Shiroe. I am not sure if I am portraying him right yet. **

**Home you all like it! Please let me know what you think!**


	3. Silvertongue and Pointed Ears

**Disclaimer: I do not own Log Horizon or My Hero Academia. I do not earn anything by posting this, and I recommend watching the original content from the creators. Do not repost this story. **

**Chapter 3**

_**Silvertongue and Pointed Ears**_

"_You are just like all of your false heroes, only out for the glory, the fame . . . and _revenge."

Even if he had come out of the situation alive and mostly unharmed, there were some scars that reached beyond the physical flesh and bone. Stain's words were one of those scars, haunting his nightmares and waking dreams. Every time he had to make a decision, every time he had to _choose, _those words came back, reminding him of his own weaknesses.

Iida always knew that he would become a hero. It had been guaranteed since the emergence of his quirk as a child. A hero legacy stood at his back, and a bright future stretched ahead of him. And then his brother had fallen, and Iida had set out to avenge the brother who would never be able to walk again.

At the time, he had called himself a hero. A hero who was exercising his _righteous obligation _of defeating the Hero Killer, and purging the world of a _stain _on their society . . .

His near death and the interference of his friends changed everything.

Suddenly, his world view had been shattered. He wasn't a hero yet, he was just a teenager throwing himself to his death because he _wouldn't follow the rules. _

It was just like Stain had said. He wasn't a hero, not a real one, not yet.

But . . . he could become one. Now that he knew his own flaws, his weakness, he knew what he needed to do in order to leave that mentality behind. He wasn't a _false _hero, and the day he crossed that line is the day he would invite Stain over for tea.

Even so, it had been months since Stain was arrested. Months of careful training and nightmares, but he had been getting _better._ Slowly, yes, but everyone around him could see it.

The scars on his arm served as a reminder that he would _never _forget.

And then . . .

"_In another life, in another world . . ."_

Iida stared down at his folded hands. His knuckles were white with tension as he sat next to a few other officers and Eraserhead. A white bandage was wrapped tightly around his head to seal the head wound he'd received. The emergency doctors at the scene had wanted to ship him to the hospital to get his concussion looked at, but he had waved them off and said that he would come in later.

Because when he'd looked up and met identical, _cold _eyes staring at him over the shoulder of one of the detectives . . .

"_What if you were _The Villain?"

He couldn't leave. He _couldn't. _

_That _can't _be me. It _can't.

He'd ended up riding back to the station with a few other officers. Eraserhead was shuffled into a car with Iida's duplicate and the detective he'd been talking to, although he had looked very irritated about it. Iida could understand. He didn't know what it was about the identical version of himself, but every time he met the others eyes it was like looking down into a viper pit.

_I have seen things that you can _never _imagine, _those eyes seemed to say, and Iida believed it.

Even so, it still felt surreal to sit outside of the interrogation room as the man who had kidnapped him slowly stirred inside. Detective Naomasa was inside at the moment, and Iida knew that he and the others wouldn't be seen through the one way glass. Nevertheless, he still felt shivers run through him as he saw the villain blink and slowly realize where he had woken up.

Iida's doppelganger had been directed to a separate room and told to wait. Iida didn't know what was creepier, the fact that the other hadn't even _reacted _to being yanked into another world, or the amused half smile that he threw the detective as the lock clicked behind him, as if he _knew_ that the police were stalling.

That, and they didn't really want the villain and the man he'd summoned together. Not just so that they couldn't talk and get a story together, but also because the police honestly weren't sure if the dark haired summon would attack his summoner again.

Best not to take chances.

Regardless of the circumstances, they needed answers, and this was the best way to get them. Sucking in a deep, rattling breath, Iida steeled himself and sat up straight, staring through the one way glass and at the villain who'd kidnapped him with determination.

They would get their answers, one way or another.

0~o~0

When Itsu Yamagami was four, his parents took him to see a quirk specialist. He'd been young, and enamored with heros and powerful quirks, just like every other child his age . . .

But unlike any child his age, he had yet to show signs of any quirk.

It had been slow, at first. The taunting, the whispers. _Quirkless,_ they all said, _useless._

But he knew that he had a quirk, even if he didn't know what it was yet. And the quirk specialist confirmed it. No extra bone in the toe joint meant that he _had _a quirk. The one problem was figuring out _what _that quirk was.

_Some quirks, _the doctors said_, take more time to reveal themselves, or are too small to be noticeable. _

It didn't matter what it was, though, because _Itsu had a quirk,_ that that was all that mattered.

He still wanted to figure out what his quirk was, of course, but at least he could confidently say that he _wasn't quirkless._ He tried everything from jumping off of the top of the playground to almost drowning himself in hopes of activating his quirk, but nothing seemed to work.

Years passed. As time went on, his attempts became more thought out, but happened less often. He retreated into himself, and when people asked him what his quirk was, he would just smile thinly and tell them that it was all a secret.

_A secret._ Right.

It wasn't until he was in highschool _\- well past the age in which he could enroll for a hero school - _that he got the first hint of his quirk. He'd been sorting the books in his school library when he'd found an old book that looked similar to a comic book but must have been a few decades old. The cover was worn and faded, and some of the characters were unreadable, but he'd picked it up out of curiosity. Usually, a book like this would have been in the special archives, well out of reach of someone like him, but this one must have been looked over.

He took the book home.

It was a story about someone who summoned warriors from the past to fight for them using a special summoning circle. Itsu had found in amusing. There were quirks that worked similarly, but with different requirements. Regardless, he'd been curious enough to try.

He'd drawn the circle and laid out the candles before standing to the side and letting a single drop of his own blood drop into the circle. Honestly, he didn't expect it to work. It _shouldn't _have worked.

And, well, it _didn't. _Not the way that he'd expected, at least.

A swirling vortex of white, like a portal, swirled into existence. And when he looked through it he saw . . . _himself. _

And not just himself, but many, _many _versions of himself. In one he was a hero, in another he was working at a factory, a chemist, a secretary, a _street boss_-

There was a multitude of worlds, and many, _many _possibilities. In many of them, he was a _hero_.

He thought, maybe it was a sign. Maybe that was who he was _meant _to be, but somewhere along the path had failed.

It took him years to work out the particulars of his particular quirk, but he managed to do it. He trained, and worked hard, and got himself an apprenticeship at one of the local hero offices. He was only an errand runner, of course, but he hoped to one day be able to work his way up from grunt work to possibly taking the hero exam.

There was just one problem -

_(Fire whirled around them, consuming the air and burning his lungs as he stared out at the destruction. Parents screamed and children sobbed as they pulled each other from the wreckage of the surrounding buildings. In the distance, a hero stood victorious, proudly standing over the broken body of a _purse snatcher-)

\- The heros cared only for their fame and the amount of so-called 'villains' they managed to beat down and capture. He'd never realized it on TV, of course, but he could see it now. Heroes walking past crimes because they weren't 'flashy' enough, or in a public area. Heroes turning away begging parents, grandparents, and teachers as they tried to save wayward students and children from a fate worse than death when they got caught toeing the line.

It wasn't just one hero, either. It was almost _all of them._

And once you see something, _you can't unsee it. _

_Is . . . is that what I am going to become? Is that what I _want _to become? Some fancy face on a billboard?_

And so he'd turned back to his mirror and searched. He _searched _for a world where he wasn't a hero, wasn't a civilian, wasn't _dead . . ._

And he found one.

He found a villain, among the ashes and the flames of a burning city, standing besides other twisted, shadowy figures.

"_This world is rotten," his other self grinned, "And the false heroes must be _purged _before it can begin anew." _

In every person, in every life, everyone has the potential to become a villain.

And then Stain had showed up.

"_False heroes-"_

Just like his alternate self.

"_They are not worthy of the title."_

And he _realized._

These heroes were wearing a false skin, they were unworthy of their position. And Itsu had the power to do it, he just had to step up.

And the first step . . . the first step was the _boy._

Stains last victim, who escaped due to chance. His work _would _be finished, even if Itsu had to do it himself.

Because every _hero_ harbors darkness in their hearts. And he knew just how to find it.

0~o~0

Naomasa sighed as he sat down in the chair across from their waking villain, shuffling the papers in front of him as he did so. The younger man slowly blinked awake, his head rolling upward and eyes slightly glazed. Naomasa winced slightly as he saw the purpling bruise on the side of the others face. Sure, he'd seen villains come in with worse (which is why they had a fully trained medical staff stationed in the building at all times), but the fact that it came from the man who he had summoned threw a wrench into things.

_How do you charge someone with excessive use of force when they don't even really exist?_

He was _not _looking forward to the paperwork.

It also highlighted the fact that the summoned man's staff was _most definitely a weapon, _but they hadn't been able to get their guest to let it go or put it down, and they couldn't exactly _take _it without _proof_.

With one last shuffle, Naomasa sighed again and locked his gaze on the still slightly unfocused villain's.

"Hello, Itsu," Naomasa began, "I would like to ask you some questions about the man that you summoned," he said as he leaned forward and rested his chin on laced fingers, "First, tell me how your quirk works."

The villain blinked a few times before he grinned, eyes sparkling, "Oh, but you already have my file, Detective!" his eyes flickered down to the paperwork, "Shouldn't you be a little more specific?"

Detective Naomasa frowned, "Very well. I know that you can . . . _summon _someone from another world that is an alternate of someone from _our_ world, but do you know how to send them back?"

"Hmm," the villain frowned slightly and tipped his head, there was a spark of mischievousness in his eyes though, "Nope."

The detective tightened his fingers, "'No' you don't know, or 'no' you won't tell me?"

A grin spread across the villains face, "You are talking about my summon, aren't you?" His eyes were glimmering in glee, "Oh, I can't _wait _to hear what he's done to this pathetic society. Truly, it was a surprise to find such a _perfect _specimen from that boy. The power, the rank, _the title-"_

Naomasa gritted his teeth. "Just answer the question. Is there a way to _send him back?_"

He had a truth detecting quirk, but it only worked on _truths and lies. _Misleading information didn't trigger it. _Troublesome. _

"Ah, but detective," the villain paused and looked Naomasa dead in the eyes, the color of the iris darkening solemnly, "_are you sure you want that answer?" _

0~o~0

Eraserhead knew that Detective Naomasa was good at what he did, but it was still a sight to see him at work. The interrogation started out rough as the detective tested the boundaries of the villain. Poking and certain topics and retreating. Even so, _something _must have rattled him in the first few minutes, because it dragged on longer than Aizawa was expecting. Regardless, he eventually circled around to the _real _reason they were talking to him separately from their other . . . guest.

"_You called the man you summoned the 'Villain in Glasses'. Why?" _Naomasa asked, and Aizawa saw Iida lean forward as his doppleganger was brought up.

Thankfully, this topic seemed to be one that the villain was all to willing to talk about.

"_Oh, you poor, unenlightened soul. You can't understand the pure_ genius _that man contains," _the villain sighed, "_Most villains today name themselves with ridiculous titles and over the top exaggerations. They call for attention, they rarely think about what happens _after _their next big heist, all they care about is the fame," _he spat, "_Just as bad as the false heroes, they are. But _that man? _Well," _the villain grinned, "_He is a true villain." _

"_You've said that before," _Naomasa frowned, "_but you still haven't explained _why."

The villain sighed, "_You really don't get it, do you? You don't _see _it?"_

"_Enlighten me." _

Leaning back, the villain examined the detective before he shrugged slightly, "_He has ruled his world from the shadows for six years. Those who know him call him 'Lord', and the people _fear _the villain in glasses._

"_Honestly, I almost passed over his world when I was searching. It had seemed so _normal_, no heroes, no villains, just the people living in their crumbling cities and their odd appearances. If I hadn't seen it for myself, well, I would never have believed it."_

_The villain grinned, "When his name is mentioned, what do you think that they do?" _

Naomasa paused, waiting.

_Dark eyes sparkled, "They _run."

Eraserhead closed his eyes and sighed, before glancing over at Iida, who was fixed on the glass with a single minded focus. They couldn't take the words of the villain too seriously. At the moment, their guest had done nothing to harm anyone except the villain, which could be argued as self defense.

And yet . . .

And yet . . . something was still bothering him.

_He has ruled his world from the shadows . . . for six years . . ._

The man that they were dealing with wasn't just some kind of victim of a terrible crime, and even if he hadn't done anything _wrong, _he might still be _dangerous. _

_He's manipulative. And smart. He knows how to play the game. _

Aizawa glanced over at his pupil again and sighed.

_This is going to be hard on Iida. _

0~o~0

The small white room that Shiroe had been left in was . . . disappointingly normal.

Honestly, if it weren't for some of the _odd _things that he had seen on the way to the police station, he would have thought that he had been teleported back home by _complete coincidence. _Which, honestly, would have been a little irritating, because he'd been working on a solution to that problem for _over six years._

If it hadn't already been _painfully _obvious that this _wasn't home, _he might have even been a little curious over the phenomenon and how they could replicate it.

As it was, though . . . Shiroe was just _tired. _

Eyes flickering to the small clock in the corner of his vision, Shiroe sighed and leaned back against the chair to get a more comfortable position, even if the hard plastic wasn't really _designed_ for comfort. It had been almost thirty minutes with the lead officer had left (and locked the door behind him, but it's not like they knew that Shiroe knew that, or that he could escape at any time if he _really_ wanted to). Honestly, Shiroe would be grateful if they would just get his side of the story and let him go find his own place to crash for a few hours. Or better yet, let _them _find a place for him to crash. Less work for him.

Before being . . . body snatched, Shiroe had been working on a project that included the united effort of the three largest Adventurer cities to get the teleportation portals up and working again. It was a daunting process, but he'd done enough research that it _might actually be possible._ It would just take work, and magic. A _lot _of magic.

In essence, the magic circles that protected each of the Adventurer cities were like giant lazer containers, but instead of collecting and bouncing light back and forth to magnify it to burning temperatures, it used _mana._ Basically, it collected the natural mana from the earth and sent it through a series of rings that would magnify it and bounce it back, over and over and _over _until it overwhelmed the final circle and poured out on the surface. This caused a bit of a problem, however. Without something to latch onto, the magic would basically act as a massive wave of destruction that would create a 'kill zone' that would crush anyone who came close from the pressure of the mana in the area. That's where the teleportation gates came in. The mana cost to hold even a small portal open was _immense_. For one as large as the city teleportation gates, it was impossible to power it with just adventurers. Whoever had built the magic circles under the cities clearly planned to link the teleportation gates with the escaping mana. In essence, it acted as a giant battery for the entire city.

There was only one problem.

In order for it to run, there needed to be mana coming _into _the circles. It should have been a natural process, but it needed something to kick-start it. A magic _light bulb_, if you were to compare it to a laser. It was like a car battery that had been completely drained. Sometimes, all you really needed was a different energy source to 'jump-start' it.

The Adventurers themselves were walking energy sources, but in order to really get things working they needed enough of them, at the right positions, directing _everything they had_ into the circles to kick-start the process again.

Shiroe suspected that the spell that brought the Adventurers to Elder Tales was the one that drained the mana from the system in the first place. Somehow, somewhere, someone had figured out a way to tap into the giant well of magic that powered the magic circles. That could be a problem later.

But it was a problem for a later Shiroe to figure out.

Being yanked into another _world _kind of out a lot of things on the back-burner.

Anyway, he'd been preparing all of his notes for the past _week_, running on little to no sleep for over seventy-two hours, in order to get everything ready for the conference in which he was going to present his plan to the round table and their guests from the other cities. If it worked - and he was almost 90% sure it would - then it would revolutionize the way that the Adventurers had been living since the apocalypse. It might also provide a way _home - _for those that still wanted to go back_. _

But now . . . well, unless someone was able to somehow track him down and body-snatch him _back -_ honestly he wouldn't be surprised if Akatsuki _found a way - _he wasn't making to the conference in time.

Which meant that he was going to have to spend _months _setting up _another _conference as soon as he got back. Which meant _more _sleepless nights, political sparring, and scarring little Adventurers who all wanted a piece of his work back into place . . .

Honestly, Shiroe just wanted to sleep.

Also, this world was _weird. _He didn't really know what he expected when he got back to Earth . . . but still having access to his menu wasn't one of them. Not that he was complaining, but still, odd.

The handle on the door turned, and Shiroe's eyes shot open. He didn't move from where he was leaned back against the chair, arms crossed over his head and behind his neck. The detective that had led him here walked in, somehow looking even _more _haggard than he had when he left.

_Ah, classic case of integrating both sides to see if the story matches. He's probably just come from talking to the _other guy. _Sadly, I am just as clueless as the next person, in this situation. _

"Good afternoon, Detective," Shiroe smiled his small '_I'm innocent'_ smile that he always used on the guild leader before he threw his latest plan on them.

Now that he thought about it, maybe that wasn't the right approach.

The Detective paled slightly and then cleared his throat as he sat down, setting a file of papers in front of him and laying them across the table. After a few moments of shuffling, he had a series of pages laid out in order, and in such a way that Shiroe couldn't clearly read what was on them.

With one last sigh, the detective leaned forward and folded his hands under his chin. There was a pen tucked between the index and middle fingers on his right hand, and a notepad on the table, ready to take notes.

"I would say 'good afternoon' back, but honestly it's been a long day," the detective started, "You've left us in a bit of a situation Mr. . . . _Shiroe." _

Shiroe calmly peered back at the exhausted detective, waiting for him to continue.

After a moment, the detective sighed and leaned back, "Not much of a talker, huh?"

_Sometimes, it's more important to be quiet enchanter and observe from the background, rather than be the bright tank that draws the enemies attention. _Shiroe smirked slightly.

"If we are being honest with each other, Detective, I could care less about _your situation, _and more about how I can get _back," _Shiroe's eyes flashed as he tilted his head, "So, did you learn anything _enlightening_ in your little talk with our mutual _friend?"_

_The crazy brought me here, surely he has a way back._

The Detective grimaced. "Ah, yes. _That." _He sighed. "Apparently there are certain conditions that have to be met after each summon in order to send that summon _back._"

Shiroe waited patiently.

"None of which we actually _know_, at this point. So far, we have determined that the people who are summoned usually stick around for a few weeks to a few months before the conditions are met."

Shiroe frowned. "I would rather not wait that long."

The Detective winced, "Neither would we, honestly," he sighed, "So, let's get this over with."

Flipping the cover of the notebook open, the detective clicked the end of the pen. "To start off with, can you tell me your name for the record? Oh, and this is all being recorded."

_Of course it is. I didn't miss the little camera pinned to your tie. _

Shiroe shot him a slightly amused glance. "I already told you my name, Mr. Detective, but I never got yours."

The Detective paused for a moment and then nodded, eyes warily flickering up to Shiroe's own for a moment before glancing back down at his pad. "You can call be Detective Naomasa. And I need your full name, not just your last."

Shiroe quirked an eyebrow and leaned forward, settling his elbows loosely on the table in front of him. "Detective, my name _is _Shiroe," he paused, and then clicked his glasses back up on his nose. "_Just_ Shiroe."

_It's the only name that really matters. It's who I am, who I have been, for the past six years. _

_Kei Shiroegane is _gone, _and I no longer go by that name. _

The Detective frowned as he stretched something down on his slightly angled pad. "Okay, _Shiroe,_ what were you doing before arriving on the scene?"

Shiroe shrugged, letting his mask of polite indifference fall over his face, "I was going to grab lunch before heading back to the office with the circle of light appeared and snatched me right off of the street."

Nodding, Detective Naomasa continued, "And where exactly where you at the time?"

Shiroe tilted his head slightly, "In Akihabara."

The Detective paused. Shiroe quirked an eyebrow.

"Akihabara?" there was a spark of surprise in the detective's eyes, and recognition. "_Old _Akihabara?"

Shiroe blinked slowly, "Well, if you want to call it that, sure. Most of the buildings _are_ crumbling and overgrown."

Detective Naomasa had stopped writing, instead just sitting there _staring _at Shiroe, as if he had said something unbelievable. Shiroe narrowed his eyes.

"Is there something _wrong, _Detective?"

Naomasa startled slightly and shook his head, "Ah, no." He cleared his throat for a moment and then moved back to the bad. "No. It's . . . it's fine. Let's move on."

Shiroe's eyes were still narrowed, but he nodded.

_I just need to play along for a little bit. No need to anger anyone at the moment. No pushing buttons. No one _really _knows who I am, and there is no reason to make them scared. _

_But by the _Alvs _what I wouldn't give for a good night's rest right about now. _

The questions continued through a few other general things, like his age, his thoughts when he was first summoned, why he sided against the man who had summoned him - "_I tend to shy away from the crazies." - _what was your former occupation - "_I was an engineering student." - _and finally -

"Why are you called the Villain in Glasses?" the Detectives voice put an odd little twist on the word _villain_, which left a bad taste in Shiroe's mouth.

_Great, the little nickname _follows _me into another world, when I _finally _started to get people to stop calling me that. It's bad for first impressions. Even if it is true._

"Detective," Shiroe sighed, "If you had to decide between saving a small handful of people, or an entire city, what would you do?"

The Detective narrowed his eyes, "I would call in the heroes."

Shiroe winced slightly, "And if there _were no heroes?"_

"I guess . . . I would save the city," the Detective's face had gone sour.

Shiroe nodded and leaned forward further, his eyes boring into the detective through the upper edge on his glinting glasses, "And what if the only way to save those people . . . was to do something that made _everyone _hate you," his eyes saddened, "Detective, sometimes . . . "

The detective had frozen under his gaze.

"_Sometimes, people don't _want _to be saved. Especially not from their own mistakes." _

0~o~0

Detective Naomasa slumped down next to Eraserhead and a wide eyed Iida, holding the small pad in his hands. A different officer had offered to lead . . . _Shiroe_ to a place where he could rest for the night. Naomasa was just glad to be out of the others presence. There was just something about Shiroe . . . something _dangerous._

"_Sometimes, people don't _want _to be saved."_

Naomasa groaned and let his head sink onto a convenient table next to him. "I don't want to do that _ever again." _

Eraserhead snorted into the coffee he was drinking and nodded. Iida just blinked slowly.

The detective sighed and sat up a little bit, throwing his notes toward Eraserhead's side of the table. "Take a look at this and tell me what you think."

Aizawa glanced down and quirked one eyebrow. "Akihabara?"

Naomasa nodded.

Iida tilted his head and pulled a little closer to his teacher to catch a glimpse, not noticing the detective twitch as his own glasses caught the light slightly, "I am afraid I have never heard of this _Akihabara, _sensei. What is it?"

Eraserhead put down the pad slowly and glanced around the room with exhaustion. "I am honestly not surprised that you haven't heard of it before," the teacher sighed, "Akihabara was a pre-quirk city . . ."

He sighed, "It was destroyed about two hundred years ago. Everyone lost. No one really knows what happened but . . . in the end, it was just a big hole in the ground. No survivors. No witnesses. One of the many blank spots in our history."

Glancing down at the pad again, Erasurehead shook his head, "It's also a clue about when our two worlds diverged."

Iida blinked. "Why is that important?"

Erasurehead tapped that paper, "Because we don't know _anything _about this alternate self of yours. And the more we know . . ."

"The better prepared we will be," Detective Naomasa picked up, "when he turns on us."

Iida felt a shiver of foreboding shot down his spine.

Not _if. _

_When. _

_Cold, cold, eyes. Eyes that watched him, even when Iida knew the other was nowhere near. _

_Eyes that whispered, "I know who you are. You can't hide it from _me, _false hero, because I am you, and_ you can't hide from yourself."

**0~o~0**

**Okay, wrote the last part with a high fever and the sniffles, so I am not really sure how it turned out. Please let me know!**

**Thanks to _I'll Make My Own Wings _for being the Beta reader for this chapter! **

**(Updated: 12/10/2019)**


	4. Heroes and Villains

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or My Hero Academia, and I do not earn anything from posting this. I also do not post in other places. Please do not repost this story.**

**Hello everyone! The last few months have been kind of crazy for me. I just got back from surgery a few days ago, and I am currently recovering, so I should have a little more time to write! I hope that you all like the chapter! It feels a little slow, but it was necessary. I hope that you enjoy!**

**Chapter 4**

_**Heroes and Villains**_

Riding in a police car was oddly nostalgic.

Not that Shiroe had ridden in a police car before, but the idea behind it was still the same. Everywhere he looked, remnants of his fading past flickered back to life again. Unlike many of his fellow Adventurer's, Shiroe still had most of his memory intact. Little things, like the fact that the buildings were all crisp and upright instead of covered in moss and tipped, or pedestrians carrying suitcases and walking around in business suits instead of battle armor, these tickled at his memories like a long forgotten dream.

The soft rumble and padded seats of the car were nothing like the harsh cries of his griffon, or the hard wood of the carriages that he had become used to in the past few years. Even so, he didn't miss it. No matter how convenient a car was, it couldn't compare to the magic saturated air blowing through his hair and around his ears. Compared to that, this was practically stifling.

Sometimes he wondered if at some point during the last few years he'd become more _Adventurer_ than _regular civilian._

Many times he's opened his mouth and turned to his loyal shadow to ask her opinion on what was happening . . . only to feel a jolt of pain as he remembered that Akatsuki had not been with him when the summoning took place.

Shiroe sighed and leaned back slightly, taking his eyes off the window to glance up at the police officer in the front of the car. The young officer flinched slightly as he caught Shiroe looking back at him through the front view mirror. Shiroe smiled wryly and adjusted his staff so that it was at a more comfortable angle. Honestly, he wanted to place it in his inventory, but showing that ability to already jumpy officers might make them a little trigger happy, and he didn't want that.

Sure, he'd seen some people with strange abilities - how did that even work? - but he wasn't going to push his luck. Did everyone have powers here, like in Theldesia? Or was it a few chosen? What kinds of powers and skills did they have? Why? What had caused society to change so much in such a short amount of time?

What world was he currently on? If this was Earth . . . then that might throw a wrench into their plans for the warp gate. That might mean that there were multiple versions of their home world and they would have to find a way to pinpoint the correct one or, even worse, the time difference ratio between their home planet and Theldesia had dramatically increased enough to allow for severe changes in the culture and abilities of normal humans over the span of a few years. Speaking of which, he still needed to find out the year. He hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of the calendar back at the station without looking too obvious.

"Ah," the still youthful voice of the officer interrupted Shiroe's inner thoughts and he glanced up questioningly. The officer flushed slightly as he caught Shiroe's eyes again and then cleared his throat, "S-sorry. I was just curious," he hesitated, "are you . . . really called the Villain in Glasses?"

Shiroe closed his eyes briefly and let out a sigh, "Honestly, it's more of a nickname than anything else. People usually only bring it up when one of my plans comes to completion. It's not really important," Shiroe tilted his head and took note of the slight flinch that the other gave at the movement. "Is it really such a taboo here to have that title?"

"Um," the officer fixed his gaze back on the road nervously, "Not so much a taboo as . . . unexpected? Not many people would be willing to let themselves be called a villain unless they really were one. And you're not really like any of the villains that we've met before, so a lot of us don't really know what to think at this point."

Shiroe's fingers, which he had been tapping on his leg throughout the ride, froze.

"Villain?"

Honestly, Shiroe was a little irritated by how much everyone had been focusing on his given title. It was just a title that his opponents and allies called him when he was being particularly ruthless. And the odd emphasis on the 'villain' part of it made him uneasy. Sure, there were many things about this world that were familiar, but there were twice as many that just didn't make sense.

"Yeah," the young man continued, "Like the League of Villains, or the Villain Syndicate a few years ago, and the-"

"You're saying," Shiroe cut the other off, his voice tight, "_That real villains exist in this world?"_

The light that they had stopped at momentarily turned green, but the officer didn't move, his eyes wide and terrified as they focused on the mirror. It took a moment for Shiroe to realize that a small fragment of magic had slipped from his control and was now drifting through the air angrily.

For people on Theldesia, such a small amount of magic would have done little other than make them shudder, but to a human who had never had any contact with magic even such a small amount probably made the very air around him feel like it was made of molten lead. Shiroe sucked in a shuddering breath and gently tugged at his magic, quietly coaxing it back into his chest where he typically kept it tightly coiled. All half-alvs had the ability to sense magic, but it took dedicated practice to be able to manipulate it like he had learned. On the battlefield he would let it soar outwards, striking fear in his enemies and bringing confidence to his allies as the familiar magic washed over them, marking their positions, stamina, and health as they fought side by side with him at their helm. But in this situation, he needed it to be calm, quiet, and undetected. There was no point in giving these people any of his secrets until he knew that he could trust him.

The air drifted back out from his lungs, taking with it his surprise and confusion.

"Sorry about that," Shiroe said calmly, loosening his grip on his staff, "It was just a surprise, to realize that the term 'villain' is more than just a general term here."

The officer swallows, finally shaking off his terror slightly, although his wary eyes kept a careful focus on Shiroe through the mirror, just in case. "I-I see . . ."

The car pushed forward and Shiroe glanced out the window to watch all of the people around them pass by. "What, exactly, are villains to you, if you don't mind me asking, Officer?"

The young man twitched again, but spoke up, "Well, textbook definition is a criminal whose power necessitates a hero on the scene to take them down. The department has a ranking for the criminals as well. G through E ranks are fairly calm and only need one or two Heroes to interfere. Rank D and above require a team of Heroes, usually from an agency so that they know how to work together. And then . . . there are the S rank Villains. For them, only the top pro's are called."

It was clear that the officer was rambling now, and Shiroe could see the light shaking of the other's fingers on the steering wheel. For a moment he considered asking the young officer to pull over and center himself, but then shook his head. Doing so might make the other even more nervous. Right now, he needed something to focus on _other_ than the invisible threat of magic that had been hovering over his head a few moments ago. Honestly, Shiroe sometimes forgot that he had to treat everyone here like they were People of the Land who had been isolated in an area with little magic their whole lives. He was a little guilty about causing the youth a mild case of mana overexposure, but it really couldn't be helped. What really worried him was what this meant for the society that he was currently trapped in.

Heroes and Villains, huh? Who would have thought that a society could actually develop to the point where these became not only typical but _meaningful_ terms. For Shiroe, the only time you ever really heard about heroes and villains was from television or movies, sometimes games, but never in real life. Even his own nickname stemmed from the fact that he didn't shy away from making people angry in order to make sure everything shaped up the way that he wanted it to, _not because he was a criminal or had plans to take over the world._

Now that he thought about it, the whole situation suddenly made a whole lot more sense. Shiroe wanted to groan and go back and hit his past self on the head. Everyone thought that he was a _Villain _of some kind. Probably a dangerous one, from the way that they were reacting, but they had no proof so they couldn't actually do anything about it yet.

This was a huge mess. It's not like he can backtrack and try and fix the misunderstanding, either. By their standards, he might be a villain. It would be best to just keep his head low and wait for his guild to find a way to snatch him back from this world. And they would, he had no doubt. Whether they did that before he got fed up and found his own way back first or not was the question.

Still, a society of Heroes and Villains. It was mind boggling. They way the officer spoke, it sounded like being a Hero was an actual profession here, which put them above the police in a way. Maybe even equivalent to the special forces.

There were several issues that he could already see coming from this kind of situation, however. So far, he'd only seen a few people display unusual abilities, and both of them had been in the room that he'd first showed up in. One had summoned him, and the other had some sort of telekinesis. If he were guessing correctly, the man in black was a 'Hero' and his summoner was a 'Villain'.

He'd seen several people in the station and just on the streets that had strange appearances as well. It had taken him a minute to notice though, since back in Akihabara it was more polite _not_ to comment when just a few years ago everyone had been human. Some were still sensitive about their race change. That didn't seem to be the case here, however. Maybe whatever caused people to gain powers affected different people in different ways?

Regardless, in a society that had actual heroes and villains, it was highly likely that those with good powers and skills got singled out and praised, raised to the position of hero practically from the point that they are discovered, while those with less desirable powers were tossed to the side. This separation of the people was _never _a good idea. He'd learned that with the People of the Land.

Sure, they may be different, they may have different specialties, but that didn't mean that they had to be kept separate. Exactly opposite, in fact. Adventurer's had to interact with the People of the Land in order to know how to treat them without offending them, and the People needed to know that not every Adventurer was a big burly brute. Preventing misunderstandings was the first step.

If they had withdrawn from the People of the Land in the beginning, there would have been war.

Here, there was no line between two distinct people, but rather a divide of culture. The further into the light the Heroes were pushed, the deeper the shadows the Villains hid in would be. Escalation, basically. Shiroe had seen plenty of it during his time as the head of the round table, and he was just tired of dealing with it.

There were other problems as well, but Shiroe was honestly too tired to go over all of the reasons it was unwise to have a society based around heroes and villains. It was impractical to give only a certain amount of people authority and power while oppressing the other side. If it were up to him, he would have found a way to give everyone with powers something that they could do in their skillset _without _having them resort to crime.

Shiroe sighed and tilted his head down, letting his glasses slide downward slightly as he thought. Whatever his opinion, it had been a long day, and he really wasn't one to judge without all of the facts. Maybe there was a good reason that a society based around heros had developed. As it was, Shiroe just didn't have all of the facts. Maybe after he'd gotten out to talk to a few people he could make a judgement call, but for right now it was probably best to just acknowledge it and come back to it later.

"Ahm," the officer cleared his throat as they pulled in front of a small apartment building. This neighborhood was quiet, with very few people out and about. Shiroe could see an older lady out walking her dog on the opposite side of the sidewalk, but other than that it was empty. "We're here."

They both stepped out and the officer led him up through the building to the second floor.

"It's not much," the young man spoke up, "But it should tide you over until you find your own place. This is just one of our safe houses that we don't really use that often."

Shiroe stepped past him as he glanced around. It was a modest apartment, a little on the small side but well furnished. There was a slight layer of dust, but that was to be expected from a place that hadn't been opened for some time.

The officer cleared his throat again and Shiroe turned to him.

"Ah, the Chief asked me to get these to you," the officer held out a stack of papers and a ballpoint pen, "If you could fill these out, we can get you some temporary residence papers until we can figure out how to get you home."

Shiroe nodded and carefully plucked the papers from the officers hands, clicking his glasses up on his nose as he glanced over it momentarily. "I understand," his eyes flashed, "When do you need this by?"

The officer snapped up, face draining of color, "Um, d-don't worry. An officer will be back tomorrow to pick you up for a follow up. T-take your time and make sure that y-you fill it out to the best of your ability."

Shiroe sighed and tilted his head. The other's reaction was ridiculous, but he wasn't willing to do anything about it right now. His exhaustion was finally catching up with him.

"Very well," Shiroe flicked the papers slightly before settling them on the tabletop. "Thank you for guiding me here. Do you need to stay here, or am I free to get some rest? I am quite tired, you see."

The young officer's eyes widened, "I-I need to report back to the station. Feel free to make yourself at home. There might be someone that will come by later, but they will inform you before entering," he swallowed, "H-have a good evening, Sir."

"Evening, officer," Shiroe tried to keep his tone light, but even still the officer still flinched slightly. He sighed as he heard the sound of the door shutting quickly behind him.

Really, what was he going to do with this situation?

0~o~0

Officer Yani barely managed to shut the door behind him before his legs gave out on him and he slid to the floor, his breathing ragged.

When the chief had given him the assignment and warned him to be wary, he honestly hadn't known what to expect when the tall youth had casually walked out of the interrogation room. The whole office was buzzing with whispers, of course, but seeing their subject in person was daunting.

The other was a good deal taller than Yani. It was a little daunting, but he'd put up with it. It was one guy, and honestly this 'Shiroe' character didn't seem to be too bad. He hadn't done anything since coming to the station and hadn't caused a scene while here. The only proof they had of his supposed 'villainy' was what another villain had said, and that had to always be taken with a grain of salt.

That was his initial impression.

Let's just say, the monster that had appeared in the back of the car along the ride back was _nothing _like what he'd first thought.

Such an innocent question, such an easy answer.

But for a moment, when he'd heard those low, flat words whispering past his ear, his heart had shuddered to a stop and the entire world narrowed into hyperfocus.

"You're saying that _real villains exist in this world?"_

Darkness. That's what he'd seen in the back of the car. Shiroe's entire figure appeared to have been completely shadowed by darkness so deep that even the light of the windows couldn't illuminate his face. Like a monster out of a nightmare, the figure loomed out of the darkness. Creeping trendles of shadows flickered in his direction, as if trying to bring him into their depths as well. The air thickened like sap.

Within the darkness, something glinted, and the gleam of glass flickered _ominously. _

Even after the darkness receded, pulled back into the figure sitting in the back seat, Officer Yani couldn't erase the image from his head.

_Like a poison snake hidden in the sticks. You will never see it until it's already too late. _

With a shudder, Yani pulled himself up and stumbled back down the stairs. He still had to get back to the station and give his report, no matter how shaky he was at the moment.

But seriously, _who in the world did that crazy villain summon?!_

0~o~0

Deep within the city, in a small, familiar apartment, a blue glow flickered to life. Slowly, dust and mist began to spin once more, picking up speed as it rose through the air. The the center, an oval of near white light shimmered, and distant echoes danced through it.

"_It seems . . . be working."_

"_Be careful . . . control output . . . unsure."_

"_Don't care . . . going in . . ."_

"_Wai-!"_

The light bulged upward, shaping itself around what looked like a small, glowing hand as it tried to break the barrier. For a second time that day, reality wavered, _shifted - _

Light shattered, leaving behind only flecks of glowing dust as they drifted to the ground. Leftover mana dispersing as a glowing sign appeared, hovering over the ground.

**Dimensional Rift Connection Failed**

**Attempting reshift in 24:12:29:30**

**24:12:29:29**

**24:12:29:28**

**.**

**.**

**.**

In a distant world, a small girl snarled as she clutched at her arm, which had several long scrapes along the side. Around her, people rushed back and forth to stabilize the fluctuating magic from their attempt.

A healer approached her slowly as she stared at the spot where the portal had hovered.

"My Lord," she whispered, unheading of anything around her, "Don't worry, we _will_ find you."

0~o~0

**Thanks again to my beta reader for continually encouraging me to keep writing! **

**I don't really know where this will go, but I hope that you all enjoyed! Please let me know your thoughts and any questions that you might have. As always, I have many story ideas, and not a lot of time, so if anyone wants to vote on which story I upload next please let me know on the poll on my profile. Note, I will only be unloading the chapters that I have written for any specific story idea, and I will be choosing a new one in about a week. If I continue the story after posting is based on if I get any more ideas for it or not. **

**I hope everyone has a good month! **

**(Updated: 2/3/2020)**


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